Wind energy is abundant, clean, and free. Some 30% of clean energy production capacity in the 15 European Union countries is based on wind energy. For the most part, however, wind energy production has been confined to large wind farms located far from dense human populations, since the large land area needed for wind farms are available outside of cities and urban centers. Moreover, most wind energy systems employ large wind turbines, which in turn require large supporting structures, such as tall towers and increased power grid capacity to deliver the power to the urban environments where people live.
As such, the wind energy systems commonly used today are unsuitable for urban environments. Urban buildings, however, consume over 40% of all power in the world, and being able to convert wind energy into electricity that is usable by urban dwellers will contribute significantly to the increased use of clean energy.
Urban environments pose several problems for traditional wind energy systems. As just discussed, traditional wind energy systems are designed for use in locations that are typically outside of urban centers. Wind farms of traditional wind energy systems located in rural areas also require increased power grid capacity to deliver their generated power to the urban centers. The large size of traditional wind energy systems is unsuitable for urban environments. Also, wind on urban building rooftops is turbulent with random up and down wind currents and rotating wind eddies. Therefore, special systems are needed to take full advantage of such wind energy. Although some wind energy systems have been designed for home use, these require large lots of at least one-half or more acres, which render them unusable in the vast majority of homes and commercial buildings in the urban centers of the world. Finally, wind energy systems in urban environments need to operate safely for humans, birds and other wildlife.
Accordingly, an apparatus for exploiting wind energy in urban environments remains desirable.